About a year ago I stopped making regular updates to this blog to concentrate on my Namnesia Antidote blog. While that is an ongoing effort, I am starting what should be about a year long effort to revitalize the concept of a "This Day in History" blog. I have decided to leave this blog intact and as-is, using a new "This Day in History 2.0" blog for my expanded and full version. Please feel free to email with your ideas. The two tables below should allow you to find a posting for the "Day in History" you wish to research.

PASCAL DATE INFORMATIONEaster Sunday for the Western Christian Church is defined as the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Lent is defined as the forty days prior to Easter not including Sundays thus Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is 46 days prior to Easter. Calculations for Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday were performed for the 3774 years from 326 to 4099. For the year range 326 to 1582, dates are based on the Julian calendar. For years 1583 to 4099, dates are based on the Gregorian calendar. Ash Wednesday falls in a range of 36 days from February 4 to March 10. Easter Sunday falls in a range of 35 days from March 22 to April 25. The extra day in the Ash Wednesday range is February 29, which only occurs in leap years. February 29 only effects when Ash Wednesday occurs since it is well before the Spring Equinox and has no effect on the date for Easter Sunday. March 10 to March 21 is a twelve-day range that must occur in Lent no matter the timing of Easter Sunday. The entire range of 82 dates from February 4 to April 25 represents all dates with Pascal ramifications.

February 23 is the 20th possible date for Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday occurs on this date 128 times during the 3774 years calculated and is ranked 13th/14th/15th of the 36 dates.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Education "Strong schools are as important to our future as a strong defense." — Edward M. Kennedy

Stupidest and/or Scariest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Clinton Bashing "I really don't think that I'm going to be able to cause anybody to take out Bill Clinton. But if I can, I hope their aim is good and I hope the bullet passes through Al Gore first. And if you want a trifecta, take Hillary, too." — Talk Show Host Rollye James, KLBJ Radio, Austin, Texas, 10-15-96. When a caller to the show praised a bumper-sticker reading, "Where is Lee Harvey Oswald now that we need him?" Rollye James enthusiastically agreed and another caller complained, prompting James's response above. Gore, James added, is "more dangerous" than Clinton, because he "really believes in all these socialistic programs." As a result of this, KLBJ fired James, who now has a syndicated show. Michael King, "It Was No Joking Matter," Austin American-Statesman editorial, 10-26-96. {The quotes for the next four days is a letter in response to this editorial.}

Dumbest Thing Said for the Day: From the world of Sports "Billy Almon has all of his in-law and outlaws here this afternoon." — Jerry Coleman was an infielder for the Yankees (what is it about the Bronx Bombers that turned out such a raft of funny speakers?), and manager of the San Diego Padres. After playing, he made his mark as a radio and TV broadcaster, where his malapropisms, non sequiturs, and other goofs became legendary. Coleman is Hall of Shame member #8.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

● 1744 - Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd wrote in his journal: 'There is a God in heaven who over-rules all things for the best; and this is the comfort of my soul.'

● 1775 - Anglican hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'How great and honorable is the privilege of a true believer! That he has neither wisdom nor strength in himself is no disadvantage, for he is connected with infinite wisdom and almighty power.

● 1848 - John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, died at age 80 in Washington, D.C., two days after suffering a stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives.

● 1852 - Fourteen hundred ton paddle-wheel steamer HMS Birkenhead runs aground on rocks near the Cape of Good Hope. As the ship began to sink, soldiers were ordered to stand in ranks on deck while women and children were loaded into lifeboats. Some 200 were saved by lifeboats, and another 30-40 were pulled from the wreckage of boat, but 420 others died, almost all soldiers. This incident established the now traditional concepts of "women and children first" and "going down with the ship."

● 1854 - The official independence of the Orange Free State is declared.

● 1861 - By popular referendum, Texas becomes 7th state to secede from US

● 1868 - Birth of black nationalist W.E.B. DuBois, the American sociologist who co-founded the N.A.A.C.P., in Great Barrington, Mass.

● 1869 - Louisiana governor signs public accommodations law

● 1870 - Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.

● 1874 - Major Walter Clopton Wingfield patents a game called "sphairistike," now more commonly called lawn tennis.

● 1875 - J. Palisa discovered asteroid #143 (aka Adria).

● 1883 - Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.

● 1883 - American Anti-Vivisection Society formed in Pennsylvania.

● 1883 - Belgium - In Ganshoren, a bomb being carried by the French anarchists Antoine Cyvoct and Paul Metayer, accidentally explodes. Metayer died the following day, refusing to reveal anything to the police about his activities. Cyvoct was extradited to France to be tried for an attack in Lyon.

● 1886 - Charles M. Hall completed his invention of aluminum.

● 1886 - London Times publishes world's 1st classified ad

● 1887 - Congress grants Seal Rocks to San Francisco

● 1887 - The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.

● 1892 - 1st college student government established, Bryn Mawr PA

● 1893 - Leon-Jules Leauthier, young anarchist shoemaker, sentenced to life in prison for stabbing and seriously wounding minister of Serbia in Paris.

● 1898 - Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Captain Alfred Dreyfus in jail.

● 1899 - Birth of Erich Kestner (1899-1974). German satirist/poet/novelist, whose military experiences made him pacifist and opponent of totalitarian systems.

● 1900 - In South Africa the Boers and British troops fight in the Battle of Hart's Hill.

● 1900 - Steamer "Rio de Janeiro" sinks in San Francisco Bay

● 1903 - Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity.”

● 1904 - For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.

● 1904 - William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Chronicle begins publishing articles on the menace of Japanese laborers, leading to a resolution of the California Legislature that action be taken against their immigration.

● 1905 - Chicago, Illinois attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.

● 1909 - Russian tsar Nicolas II dissolves Finnish Diet

● 1909 - The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.

● 1917 - First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution.

● 1918 - First victory of Red Army over the Kaiser's German troops near Narva and Pskov. Since 1923 this date become the Day of Red Army in honour of this victory.

● 1919 - Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.

● 1921 - 1st US transcontinental air mail flight arrives in New York NY from San Francisco CA

● 1923 - German Republic day with laws against worker

● 1923 - Great Britain lowers import duty on German products from 26% to 5%

● 1924 - Egyptian textile strikers seize Alexandria.

● 1927 - The Federal Radio Commission began assigning frequencies, hours of operation and power allocations for radio broadcasters. On July 1, 1934 the name was changed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

● 1929 - Arvo Vaara sentenced to six months in prison for article on illness of King of England.

● 1941 - Plutonium was first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.

● 1942 - The first shelling of the U.S. mainland during World War II occurred as a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery in Ellwood, Calif.

● 1943 - General-Major Bradley arrives in Dakar & Marrakesh

● 1943 - German troops pull back through Kasserine-pass Tunisia

● 1944 - forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people to Central Asia

● 1945 - 2nd Dutch government of Gerbrandy forms in London

● 1945 - Canadian troops occupy Kalkar

● 1945 - Operation Grenade General Simpson's 9th Army crosses Ruhr

● 1945 - World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań, city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.

● 1945 - World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten US Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize.

● 1945 - World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.

● 1945 - World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.

● 1970 - In a costume action by the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front, his Holiness Pope Morris the First goes to First Congregational Church and tacks an invoice for 90 billion dollars on the door. The amount represents 10,000 dollars for each of the nine million known executions of gay people at the instigation of clergy.

● 1970 - The Holy Eucharist was distributed by women for the first time in a Roman Catholic service.

● 1971 - Lt. William Calley confesses he directed a mass execution of South Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, Viet Nam, and implicates his commanding officer, Capt. Ernest L. Medina, who he says issued the orders to murder. He got his wrists slapped and was sent home; Medina was never charged.

● 1972 - Angela Davis is released from prison (after 16 months). She goes on trial five days later.

● 1972 - Hijackers surrender and free Lufthansa crew; Palestinian hijackers who took over a Lufthansa jet two days ago release the crew at an airfield in the Yemen.

● 1990 - Sandanistas lose election after years of U.S. intervention, covert war, and economic sabotage.

● 1991 - During the Persian Gulf War, ground forces crossed the border of Saudi Arabia into the country of Iraq. Less than four days later the war was over due to the surrender or withdraw of Iraqi forces.

● 1997 - Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building. He killed one person and wounded six more before killing himself.

● 1997 - Scientists in Scotland announced they succeeded in cloning an adult mammal, producing a lamb named "Dolly"

● 1998 - A U.N.-brokered deal forces the U.S. to reluctantly give up plans for a new series of military strikes against Iraq.

● 1999 - An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.

● 1999 - In Ankara, Turkey, Abdullah Ocalan was charged with treason. The prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for the Kurdish rebel leader.

● 1999 - White supremacict John William King was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering James Byrd Jr. Byrd was dragged behind a truck for two miles on a country road in Texas.

● 2004 - Education Secretary Rod Paige likened the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, to a "terrorist organization" during a private White House meeting with governors.

● 2004 - The Army canceled its Comanche helicopter program after sinking $6.9 billion into it over 21 years.

● 2005 - Slovakia Summit 2005 begins, marking the first occasion when a sitting American President visits Slovakia; Bush and Putin are in attendance.

● 2005 - The New York, NY, city medical examiner's office annouced that it had exhausted all efforts to identify the remains of the people killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, due to the limits of DNA technology. About 1,600 people had been identified leaving more than 1,100 unidentified.

● 2005 - Vote of the controversial French law on colonialism, repealed start of 2006.

● 2006 - Dubai Ports World agrees to postpone its plans to take over management of six U.S. ports after the proposal ignited harsh bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.

● 2007 - A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, United Kingdom, killing one person and injuring 22. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.

● 2007 - Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea.

BIRTHS

● 1417 - Pope Paul II (d. 1471)

● 1583 - Jean-Baptiste Morin, French scientist (d. 1656)

● 1633 - Samuel Pepys, English naval administrator and man of letters, posthumously famous as a diarist (d. 1703)

● Roman Catholic:● St. Alexander Akimetes● St. Boswell● St. Cerneuf● St. Dositheus● St. Felix of Brescia● St. Florentius● St. Jurmin● St. Lazarus Zographos (d. 867)● St. Martha● St. Medrald● St. Milburga● St. Ordonius● St. Peter Damian● St. Polycarp of Smyrna (died 155)● St. Romana● St. Serenus the Gardener● Martyrs of Sirmium● St. Willigis● St. Zebinus

● Greek Calendar:● Martyr Charalampus (another) and three women companions.● St. Anastasius, Archbishop of Jerusalem.● Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of Areovindus.● Hieromartyr Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste.● St. Demetrius, monk, wonderworker of Priluki (Vologda).● St. Vsevelod (in holy baptism Gabriel), wonderworker of Pskov.● St. Theodora, wife of Emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast.● New-Martyr George of Serbia.● St. George, abbot in Serbia.● Repose of Archbishop Simon of Shanghai and Peking (1933).

● Old Roman Catholic:● St. Peter Damian, bishop of Ostia/confessor/doctor

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Life long Liberal. Actually saw JFK on campaign trail. Defining moment of my life was the assassination of JFK. First presidential election I participated in was knocking on doors for McGovern, have been tilting at windmills ever since.